Jasper didn’t think he would ever be ready, but he was starting to think it was time. He’d already created the main character—an amalgamation of three guys he’d known back in Afghanistan. Three good men who had been killed. He wanted to tell their stories without violating their privacy. Creating one character that took the best of each of them solved the problem.
“I’ve got a good handle on what I want to do,” Jasper said. “I’m thinking of an open-ended series. Military crimes, some with a civilian connection.”
Sara’s eyes brightened. “We would love that. You’re the best at what you do. Just to be clear, next year you’ll write the last book in your current series, and then you’ll start the new series after that.”
“Yes.”
Hank leaned forward. “Vidar needs a love interest.”
Jasper resisted rolling his eyes. “So you’ve told me.”
“Hank’s right,” Sara added. “It’s time. You have female readers who adore you, but come on. You need a fully realized woman in one of your books. One who is more than a one-night stand or a victim. It will help you grow as a writer. Vidar falling in love will make readers bond with him more and bring the series to a satisfying conclusion.”
A conversation they’d had before. Jasper knew the argument. Vidar, his ongoing hero, was too one-dimensional. He needed a personal life. A deeper backstory. Less grunts and more conversation.
His argument that the character borrowed heavily from the Norse mythology—the son of Odin and a giantess named Grid, Vidar was silent and known for his physical strength and therefore was unchangeable—was wearing thin.
What he didn’t tell them and would barely admit to himself was his resistance wasn’t about the story. He knew they were right in their assessment of his story arc. The problem was him—he wasn’t sure he knew how to write a woman and he sure as hell couldn’t figure out how anyone fell in love.
“I’ll see what he can do,” he told them.
“Excellent.” Hank nodded. “Now Sara has some interesting ideas about next year’s tour.”
Sara smiled. “I hope you’re going to be excited. We want to do something different.”
Their idea of exciting and his had little in common, he thought, but nodded to show he was willing to listen.
Sara leaned toward him. “We want to send you to Europe. All your publishers there are clamoring to see you. England, France, Spain, Italy and of course Germany.”
“You’re huge in Germany,” Hank reminded him.
“We’re hoping for three weeks.” Her tone was cautious. “If you think you could manage that.”
He’d never been to Europe, he thought. Never thought he’d go. He was fairly sure his passport was out-of-date, but that was easily rectified.
“Make it four weeks so I can have a day or two off in each of the countries,” he told them. “I’d like to look around and see a few things.”
“Excellent.” Sara jotted on her pad of paper. “Now about the US tour. We really want to push the book and have you visit as many of the accounts as possible.” She smiled. “Before you glower at me, we’ve come up with what we think is the perfect solution.”
She pulled a large, glossy brochure from under the pad and handed it to him. Jasper looked at the cover and started to laugh. “Seriously?”
The picture showed a luxury RV on a highway. He turned the page and saw a layout along with a list of amenities.
Sara’s expression was hopeful. “We’d take care of renting the trailer and booking your trailer sites or camping spaces or whatever they’re called. In the big cities like Chicago and St. Louis, you’d leave the trailer parked at the site and stay at a hotel for a couple of days. But most of the time you’d be on your own, driving from place to place. No escort, no airports, no rush. What do you think?”
“How long would you want me to be on tour?”
She worried her lower lip. “Three months?”
It was a long time to be gone, but it wasn’t as if he had a lot waiting for him at home. He thought briefly of Wynn, but theirs was a casual relationship—no promises, no strings. He’d left Happily Inc three days ago and he hadn’t heard from her. He would be gone another couple of weeks and they wouldn’t be in touch until he was home. Like he’d first thought—he was free to do what he wanted.
“Let’s do it,” he told Sara. “I’ll use the road time to get my last book in the series figured out, then go home and write it.”
Hank grinned. “Fantastic. Your sales are going to go through the roof.”
Jasper nodded as if that mattered to him as well, but in truth, the writing was a lot more about keeping the demons at bay and his ability to look himself in the mirror than about any royalty check. The writing had saved him when he’d thought nothing could. Without his stories, he wouldn’t be here today—of that he was sure.
CHAPTER FIVE
DREW WATCHED SILVER sign the paperwork formalizing their new business relationship. He’d delivered the contract to her a couple of days ago and she’d had an attorney look everything over. This morning she’d texted to say she was ready to sign.
He’d arrived at her retail space shortly before noon. She’d been waiting, one of the display tables cleared, with two chairs on opposite sides. It wasn’t until she finished with the last page that he realized he’d half expected her to change her mind. Taking on a partner was a big deal. But she hadn’t and now they were partners.
He took his copy of the contract, then held out the keys for the new trailers. “Here you go.”
She grinned and took them. “I have so many plans I’m not sure where to start.”
“Show me.”
She walked to the small alcove she used as her office and returned with several sheets of paper and a large sketch pad. She set the latter in front of him, then moved her chair so they were sitting on the same side of the table.
“I thought we’d keep the remodel on the smaller trailer fairly simple,” she began. “It’s more mobile, given the size. We can take it out into the desert or up to Honeymoon Falls. It’s going to be all about using the space.”
She showed him the drawings she’d made of custom shelves and cabinets. A refrigerator was a must, but if they were going to be away from an electrical source, then they would be working off a portable generator.
“That means there’s a noise component,” she told him. “We’ll have to figure out how long we can have the generator turned off. During a wedding ceremony for sure, but then it would have to be on for the party, otherwise, nothing would stay cold.”
“What about solar panels?” he asked.
She blinked at him. “What?”
“Maybe we could use solar panels to power everything. We’re in the desert—it’s rarely cloudy. As long as the panels were fully charged, I bet we could avoid using a generator.”
Her eyes widened. “That’s brilliant. Yes, let’s look into that!”
Her praise made him sit up a little straighter. Stupid, but true. He’d always like impressing Silver and apparently, that hadn’t changed.
They returned their attention to her drawings. She’d designed flip-up counters and plenty of storage for glasses, blenders and liquor.
“With this design, we could use the trailer for a lot more than weddings,” he said. “How about graduations, birthday celebrations and office parties? Things that happen other than on the weekend.”
“I was thinking about that, too. Having more trailers means having more staff. I won’t be able to simply call around to find out if my preferred people are available. I’m going to have to keep at least one or two on permanently.”
She didn’t look happy as she spoke.
“There’s money in the budget for two employees.”
“I know, but it’s a step further than I’ve ever gone.” She looked at him. “We can�
�t all be titans of industry.”
“It’s a small-town bank, Silver. I’m not exactly a titan.”
“You’re more titan-like than anyone I know.”
They were sitting close enough that he could see tiny smile lines by her eyes and the pale freckles on her nose. She wore her usual nonwork uniform of jeans and a tank top. A tattoo of a dragon curled over her left shoulder, the tail trailing toward her elbow. He knew there was a small rose on the inside of her right ankle and a ladybug by her right hip bone.
The dragon was new to him. After all this time, there were probably tats he hadn’t seen and he was curious about them. What other ink had she chosen to define and celebrate herself?
Silver had always been beautiful. As a teenager, she’d been in a class by herself. She still was but it was different now. Her features were a little sharper—honed by life’s experiences. She still smelled like vanilla and the promise of sex, a scent he knew to be uniquely hers. Even her pheromones taunted him.
He pulled his attention back to the drawings in front of him. They went over her plans for the larger trailer, one that would be primarily for weddings. Her design was all about getting as much of a bar as possible into a trailer, and then being able to serve customers quickly and efficiently.
“We’re going to have to pick a contractor,” he told her. “Did you look at the names I sent you?”
“Yes. They both have great reputations. Neither of them have experience working with trailers, but that’s not a surprise. It’s kind of a specialized field.”
“They’ve each worked with clients of mine and have gotten good reviews. We can go with whomever you’re comfortable with.” When she hesitated, he added, “I’m happy to interview them myself or set up interviews with both of us there.”
“Let’s do that. I’m not sure what to ask, but I want to be there. Then we’ll make a decision.”
He pulled out his phone and added the task to his calendar. “I’ll get something out to them today so we can get going.”
She nodded. “The sooner the trailers are functional, the sooner we can start booking them.” She glanced around her showroom. “Now if only we could do something with this.”
He followed her gaze. The retail space was big and open. One square room maybe fifty by fifty with an alcove that was her office. There were a couple of restrooms in back and a small storage area.
Silver leaned back in her chair. “I keep feeling as if I’m missing out on an opportunity to make money here, but I’m not sure what to do. Everything I’ve thought of seems so complicated.”
“Such as?”
“Rehearsal dinners. Generally, the wedding party has the rehearsal on Friday and then the dinner after, but sometimes their wedding venue has a Friday wedding planned and so the Saturday wedding folks are out of luck. Or sometimes the wedding party is too small to meet the venue’s minimum. I thought about offering this place, but there’s no kitchen. Putting one in would be really expensive and take up too much space.”
“Can’t they use caterers? Or couldn’t you contract with a caterer who would bring in everything they need.”
Silver looked doubtful. “Without any kind of food prep area, it would be difficult to actually cook. All the food would have to be brought in. It makes things complicated.” She paused. “Don’t laugh, but I’ve thought about having bachelorette parties here.”
“How would you make that happen?”
She pointed to the ceiling. “I’d get rods installed so I could easily hang drapes to make the setting feel more intimate. We’d have seating like at any dinner, but also a few sofas and love seats. It would all be movable so we’d be able to support whatever theme they wanted.”
“There’s a theme?” All the bachelor parties he’d been to had focused on liquor and giving the groom a hard time.
She nodded. “Say a spa theme. So there would be a massage table and pedicure stations. Those would be brought in but we certainly have the room.” She looked at him, then away. “And we could put in some poles.”
If she hadn’t already mentioned rods for the drapes, he would have assumed she meant poles for that. “What are you talking about?”
She cleared her throat. “You know. Poles. Like stripper poles. They’re actually very popular. The bride and her friends learn moves they can, ah, share later.”
He kept his expression neutral and did his best not to wonder if Silver had any moves he didn’t know about. “Stripper poles?”
“It’s just a thought.”
He reminded himself this was a business meeting and that picturing Silver doing a pole dance was wrong on many levels. “Sounds like a good one.”
“Let me run some numbers. The poles have to be secured to the floor and the ceiling. I’d have to check my lease as well, to make sure I could do it. Or I guess I could phone Violet and just ask.”
Violet was the owner of the retail space and loft above, and Silver’s landlord. The previous year she’d fallen in love with an English duke and had moved across the pond, so to speak, and married him.
“If you can install stripper poles?” He laughed. “I almost want to be in on that call.”
She rolled her eyes. “We’re not going to talk about anything sexy.”
“No, but it will still be interesting.”
“You’re such a guy.”
“I can be, yes.” He looked around. “I would say if you think renting out this space for parties is something we should try, let’s spend the least amount we can. The poles shouldn’t be too expensive. Better lighting and some soundproofing. But nothing that expensive, at least at first. The main business is always going to be the trailers.”
“That’s a really good point.”
“Have you thought of starting a franchise?”
She stared at him. “Excuse me?”
“Your trailer bar idea is brilliant. What about a franchise? It would be great for a lot of people. Retirees, anyone who only wants to work a few days a week.”
She made a T with her hands. “Let’s take this just a little slower. You’ve been my business partner all of fifteen minutes. Let’s put franchising on the back burner for oh, say a month.”
“It wouldn’t be hard. Once we got the legal stuff out of the way, we’d need to come up with a plan, then maybe do a little internet advertising.”
“Is that all?”
“You have to have vision.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “You weren’t kidding when you said you had a lot of business experience.”
“I wasn’t.”
“My business partner, the bank mogul.”
“It’s just one bank. Does that make me a mogul?”
She laughed. “It’s one more bank than anyone else I know owns. I’m kind of surprised you stayed in town.”
“Why would I leave?”
“You could be a bigger mogul somewhere else. Plus, you know, the parents. I’ve never actually met them, but I remember what you told me about them when we were going out. Your mother is very ambitious for her only child.”
“Why would you remember that?” he asked.
“Because it was important to you.”
It had been, and still was. He didn’t normally talk about his parents, but with Silver he’d felt a connection that he hadn’t experienced before or since. He’d trusted her with every part of himself, including the doubts he rarely admitted to, let alone shared.
He’d talked about his parents and their odd sense of the world—that being connected and having political and financial power mattered more than anything else, including family. His mother especially was driven to be influential. Ambition drove her to an extent that was almost frightening.
Drew had done his best to rebel against their dreams for him but it had been a losing battle. Then his father had received an ambassador
ship that had sent his parents to Europe. He’d been in high school and after much discussion, they’d agreed to leave him with his Grandpa Frank.
Drew had loved the freedom, the normalcy of simply being one of the grandkids. He’d been able to relax, to learn and grow because it was what he wanted and not because of some unrealistic master plan. And he’d fallen in love with Silver.
“What is this really about?” she asked, her voice quiet. “Are you really that interested in being a business partner or are you rebelling against what your parents expect?”
“You mean run the bank for two years, then join them in their lobbying firm?”
Her eyebrows rose. “Is that the current plan?”
“Last I heard.”
“What do you want?”
What he’d always wanted. He wanted to run the bank, to modernize the various processes and make every department responsive to the community.
“Remember about three years ago when there was that big push to raise the money to build a new fire station?”
One had desperately been needed, but there hadn’t been the money. Business leaders had come together to raise the funds privately.
“I ran the committee,” he admitted. “I wasn’t the public face, but I took care of all the details, brainstormed most of the ideas. I convinced my grandfather to donate a sizable portion of our profits for the quarter. Everyone kicked in and we got the station built.”
“I remember, but I didn’t know that was you.”
“It wasn’t me. It was the whole town. That’s what I want—to be more than a guy who runs the bank. I want to make the bank relevant and important. Not some heartless institution.”
“Wow.” She looked at him. “And here I thought you just gave orders and counted the money.”
He grinned. “I let Libby do that.”
He looked at Silver. She was the more mature version of the girl he’d fallen in love with. Back then she’d had attitude, but now she had life experience to back it up. He wanted to say she was fearless but didn’t everyone fear something? As the question formed, he wondered what she worried about in the middle of the night.
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